Urge to Raise Taxes on Cigarettes in India

By now, just about everyone who is a teenager or older should know or come to grips with the fact that cigarettes are bad for you. They offer no health benefits, they cause cancer over time, significantly affect your fitness if you are not a person who exercises regularly, they are highly addictive and the worst part is, they kill people every year. Some places have taken action toward these deadly products. Some have raised fines for getting caught smoking in certain areas, others have raised smoking ages, and a very popular option for a lot of places is introducing the electric cigarette, nicotine gum or some other alternative method to draw attention away from the cancer sticks. While these actions are a great step in the right direction, the world health organization claims that there is still a lot of work to be done.

According to the world health organization, there are still approximately 2.2 million people who die every year in the south Asian community, despite the fact that they make up ninety percent of the people that use the electronic form of smoking. The world health organization has been pestering governments to raise the taxes on cigarettes even higher than they already are, as an increased tax rate is shown to be the single most effective way to control the sales of cigarettes.

I understand where the world health organization is coming from with their concern for raising the prices of cigarettes, and I agree with the idea, however, it seems that they fail to understand one thing that may be the reason why taxes on cigarettes are not going up at an alarming rate. While it is true that the governments will receive more of the money by raising taxes, the product being sold becomes more expensive, resulting in the company selling less and of course, the amount of money the government receives will be less as well. It’s a real shame that greed for high luxury living is so great that it overpowers the importance of the health of others. Not only does smoking harm people, but second hand smoke is much worse, and smokers today are basically forced to breathe it in, since they are in such a confined area most of the time. If it were up to me, I would have cigarettes wiped off the face of the earth in an instant, not only because I cannot stand them one bit, but because I also care about the health of others, and I hate watching people bring harm to themselves repeatedly.

About Kerry Dennison

Kerry is a person who enjoys writing & storytelling. When he's not writing, you can either find him playing Mario Kart wii with his friends or spending time in the gym, as gaming and powerlifting are other hobbies of his.
Contact Kerry: kerry.dennison@youthindependent.com